A significant portion of unemployed people in Germany have a migrant background. According to the federal employment office, 1.5 million out of the 2.8 million unemployed are migrants—they represent 54% of the total.
Among the migrants, 1,1 million people, 39% of all unemployed people, are foreigners—people without German citizenship. This means that they are hugely overrepresented in the unemployment figures, as foreigners make up 16% of the total population.
There is a similar trend among the long-term unemployed—defined as those who have been out of work for two years or more. Of the 881,000 long-term unemployed in Germany, 52% have a migrant background.
Differences between Germans and non-Germans also run through the levels of education. While 51% of unemployed Germans have not completed vocational training, the figure is almost 82% for non-Germans.
“Anyone who has neither a vocational qualification nor a job after years of having lived in Germany cannot be called a potential skilled worker but is a permanent burden on our social system,” right-wing AfD MP René Springer said.
